108463-dissection-there-is-no-content
Content ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- That's an important question too... what did they mean with that 60%? Purely solo, mostly solo, what? I think PUGing adventures and dungeons are great content, but I also think the environment was toxic for a long time because of the intersection of two groups: 1. Raiders - running in PUGs anyway (maybe guild is crap, maybe most guildies are done, maybe guild is too burnt out to go through it again, etc) for silver attunement or for gear 2. Soloists/small group people - they probably want to just learn and have fun in the content One group wanted perfection from first go, the other group wanted to enjoy the content and learn it. Very unhappy PUG atmosphere. | |} ---- ---- ---- ---- the 2.5 global cooldown didn't kill it for you first? /gag | |} ---- So, you group with your Guildmates, right? Then you are not a soloist. | |} ---- 20 likes. | |} ---- No. With my psychological issues it was actually helpful to me. | |} ---- Yes, when I feel enough trust or feel cornered I do. But, my skill at the game drops at least 20% when I'm in a group and I generally feel trapped and get the panicky need to escape. It's nothing personal, just extreme anxiety problems I have. And I am a soloist. This is the first time where I've been actively social in an MMO since 2009. | |} ---- I found it weirdly slow at first but once I got some more abilities and a couple of cross-class DoTs on my bar I found the combat pace just fine. | |} ---- ---- ---- ---- Well, safe to say, I just dove head-first into an empty pool... since there was no TL;DR safety-net to break my fall. :D *rubs head and tuchus and hobbles away like Bigfoot fleeing from the killer station-wagon in Harry and the Hendersons* | |} ---- While that was some epic rp, cheers, it felt utterly pointless. You said nothing but that there was no tl:dr. I don't do those. The topic doesn't lend itself to such. | |} ---- ---- Erm, well, you did suggest being positive... was merely trying to lighten the mood and keep it more "upbeat" I guess... *shrugs* :ph34r: stage left... | |} ---- This is exactly how I feel. So to answer the OP's question, this game does have a lack of endgame content. I do not consider playing around with a housing plot a significant item to be placed on this guild's list of content. Its a feature, one that is generally optional in many MMOs and adds a fantastic level of immersion, customization, etc. However, when I reach the endgame in an MMO I (and I am not alone) generally describe content in terms of ideas like: "Character Progression, Gear Grind, Instanced Content, PVP" etc. As someone who enjoys doing most of what a game has to offer at its cap, but is generally not "hardcore" enough to do "hardcore" things - I have available to me a few options in Wildstar. And yes, I have a character at the level cap and have done these things. For sake of clarity, lets assume that at the top of the list is the content that I will absolutely ignore because I'm not cut out for it - Raiding. We will assume that your premise is correct, I do not like it/will not put out the work required, ergo I am missing out on raids. Note: Since the OP is extremely concerned with semantics, I will state that I do list several activities as "unattractive for progression" and the like. The baseline assumption is that many players at endgame level caps in MMOs typically will do whatever is expedient for their progression, despite its lack of fun factor. Therefore, in many games, an indicator of successful content generation is a combination of its (A) popularity for being fun/exciting/"good" and ( B its utility. It must be expedient or people generally (with exceptions - see Achievements and Cosmetics - but these are often tied to pride in completionist tendencies) will not continue to participate in/repeat it. Category A: Malfean Does not Like/Refuses to do: Raids (1 content item) Category B: Content Malfean will not do because there are fundamental problems with implementation/bugs/lack of progression (generally what we consider "endgame" in most MMOs) 1. Shiphands - I could do these at level 50 but they are not "Veteran" and therefore offer no incentive or reason for me to run them, other than for pure enjoyment. This is categorically not endgame content as it is not "Level 50" content. 2. Dungeons - Dungeons are tuned in such a way in this game that they prepare players for raids. They offer little in the way of rewards (now a bit more with the AMP change), but have several negative components attached to them - the Medal system which is tied to loot generation and creates a toxic community of insta-quitting, extremely long queue times due to the dwindling population, challenging encounters with few if any rewards, many of the bosses or dungeons have numerous bug reports attached to them that make them unattractive. If a token system to acquire a base set of gear (perhaps pre-raid blues or something) were added these would potentially be worthwhile. RNG on RNG makes dungeons extremely unattractive. 3. Adventures - Far simpler than dungeons. High replayability, enjoyable. Loot nerf simply makes me question how I am in fact progressing through endgame through adventures (I am not), See dungeons - there is little or no reason to actually do these if you are trying to improve your character in any way. What would be far better is if there were some sort of secondary token system in addition to loot that would give you access to a semi-decent (read: not optimal) gear set. 4. Housing - This is not content, its a feature. 5. Crafting - Not really a....game unto itself. There's no progression past reaching the cap in a tradeskill, so again I just wouldn't consider this "content". 6. PVP - See the many threads on this forum about the current state of PVP. Rankings and arena issues persist, exploits, spawn camping in the new battleground, etc. RNG on RNG now on the PVP gear, unattractive for progression and advancement. 7. Dailies - While dailies provide access to potentially useful items through the reputation system, they are by no means sustainable content. Once a player has maxed their faction reputation they cease to be useful content beyond Elder Gem acquisition and currency acquisition. Additionally, extreme repetitiveness in the form of dailies is -generally- maligned in the MMO industry by player feedback. This is a taste argument, which I have attempted to avoid given your OP - but its hard to ignore industry trends. People do not like dailies but developers keep inserting them in games for various reasons. I will not pretend to understand Carbine's, but we should probably not consider them long-term meaningful content for a player over a significant period of time. 8. Achievement Hunting - Another case of "feature" rather than content. Achievements have little if nothing to do with a game's mechanics/philosophy of gear/advancement, etc. Extremely fun and time consuming for many, but not content, strictly. 9. Playing the Economy - Many MMO gamers do enjoy playing economies for the simple sake of playing economies. Its fun money you can invest in things, and you get the satisfaction of controlling a market, buying stuff, etc. However, its again not content. Additionally, this "feature" suffers as the player population declines across servers. 10. World Bosses - Useful only because of their role in the Attunement process as a stepping stone for raids. Ergo, players who are not interested in raids have no use for them - and as the time to group for a World Boss increases with dwindling populations, they only become more irrelevant. You have only to look at several threads on this forum with disgruntled players posting the time it takes to get 20 people together to murder Scorchwing. Today I saw a thread with players posting their solo kill times with the sentiment "You can totes do this, I did. Nothing wrong with the game." The intention of the developers was for those bosses to be 20-manned, its clearly not working out that way as time goes on and will get worse. 11. Farm Elder Gems to spend on stuff - A "feature" which is tied to an artificial weekly limit. In an MMO, a casual player like myself can be enticed to "make time" to grind Elder Gems in order to work on things like AMP/Ability Point progress, but this cap puts a significant IRL time investment (note: not game time) to do this. I will not consider this "content" as again, its a "feature". I could potentially go through more "activities" in this game but I believe you see the point. On the list I stated above, only Dailies in any way meaningfully contribute to a non-raider's desire to "progress" as far as non-raiding will take him/her. They provide guaranteed gear without any RNG mechanics, which respect a player's time commitment and are accessible to anyone. Now, let us compare a "non-hardcore" experience to....RIFT. I would use Final Fantasy 14 as many are currently doing on the forums, but people seem to get mad about that. Category A: Content Malfean does not like/refuses to do based on taste 1. Raids of the Current Tier - I probably would, honestly, but I don't play RIFT that much. I'll give you this category. Category B: Stuff Malfean may or may not do to progress: 1. PVP that is not fundamentally broken/plagued with bugs/gear does not contain significant RNG and makes Malfean feel as though he is "progressing". 2. Chronicles - Solo and duo dungeons scaled from level 50 up. Drop tokens for gear and serve as a source of experience for the Planar Attunement (alternate advancement system) which does not suffer from a weekly cap. Malfean always progresses when doing Chronicles, even if its just a Planar Attunement level. 3. Dungeons - 5 mans. Require grouping but are generally tuned to be PUGable via the dungeon finder, whereas Wildstar's dungeons are not. Drop tokens for gear and serve as a source of XP for Planar Attunement. Malfean always progresses when doing dungeons. 4. Hard mode Dungeons - 5 mans. More difficult, possibly (most assuredly) PUGable and drop tokens for gear and serve as a source of XP for Planar Attunement. Malfean always progresses if he feels "hardcore" enough to complete one of these guys. 5. Dailies - Suffer from the same issues as any other game. Malfean will not do these because they are boring, so we'll consider him out of participating in this grind. 6. End-Game zone rifts - Large open world activities. Assuming Malfean is on a server with a decent population, which is possible, plenty of XP, crafting mats, money, etc. We will consider this an activity Malfean does not participate in because we can't always count on population above dungeon finder queues (I think we can for RIFT due to scarcity of servers, etc. but I'll give it to you). 7. Instant Adventure - Immediate teleportation to zones previously visited in the game with quick quests. Net XP for Planar Attunement and money. 8. Dimensions - Housing. We will consider this a feature 9. Economy - See above. Feature not content. 10. Crafting - See above. Feature not content. Final comparison: Wildstar: Malfean categorically will not raid, and when logging in finds only one activity with a clear, delineated, progression path that does not depend on population numbers Wildstar currently does not have, significant RNG that could waste his time, or significant bugs: 1. Dailies RIFT: Malfean may not participate in large group content or very difficult raids, but he has some lower item level dungeon gear sets to work on, and plenty of room to boost his stats with Planar Attunement if he ever decided to want to stop being a "cupcake". 1. PVP 2. Dungeons 3. Chronicles 4. Hard Mode Dungeons -This comparison was overall kind to Wildstar, given that I have played both of these games and have raided in RIFT, done world events, etc. I'm dumbing myself and my ability down as a player and giving you all kinds of concessions, but I still think the point is fairly clear. So yes, when people say "There's nothing to do" they actually mean a combination of (A) There's nothing fun for me to do BUT ALSO ( B ) There's nothing useful for me to do/or doesn't come with significant strings/or isn't bug-laden. | |} ---- When did Garrosh get so hairy? Is this a time travel thing? | |} ----